My Quest adventure - evaluation and link to my unfinished game.

            Miss Pear's adventures. Chapter One - Fruit Town



Even though I haven't yet finished the entire game, I have put quite a fair bit of it in Quest.

Here's a link to what I have done till now.

Miss Pear's adventures - Chapter One: Fruit Town.

I have started using the software Quest for creating my text adventure game. I found it quite easy to use initially, very intuitive, and with great results. To start off with, I have read a few articles, just to be able to make an idea about the feeling around the community of game developers using Quest. Everyone was praising the software and the games I have played on the Quest website, are really fun, interesting, giving the player enough interaction to feel like they are actually driving the adventure, but not too much, so that the game becomes immense.

So, all this being said, I have sat down and took all the data from my mind map and started imputing it into the Quest software.
Mapping my game was a very fun experience as Inspiration, the software I have used, has lots of options for mind mapping and a vast library of images to use on each branch. So, the mapping itself was a large part of the process, but only because I have enjoyed it so much.


 However, after creating quite a few rooms inside the Library, which is the starting point of my adventure, I had to go outdoors in order to create "imaginary" rooms (i.e. bus station, train station, ticket office) and that's when I have encountered some set backs.

Even though I have used scripts before, in the Canteen section of the Library, I didn't seem to make it work when at the Bus Station. My intention was to create a script that would not allow the player to get on the bus if a ticket wasn't purchased. I have tried to introduce the script in the Verb section of the "Ticket" page, but because I wanted the verb to be "use",  I was sent to the Inventory section, as the verb was too similar to a normal command used for the inventory.

script added in the Inventory section of the "Ticket" Object

But, when introducing the script in this section, it didn't seem to work, when trialled out in Play mode.

Results when tried out in Play mode

After a few various attempts and getting some tips from my colleagues, I have managed to make the ticket work. I found it really interesting how, when programming the game, there are a lot of objects that the player cannot see in 'Play' mode. For example, in order to make the bus accessible to the player only if he/she has a ticket purchased, I had to create a separate room in the Bus station called Bus01, but which had an alias called Bus, which is what the player would see when in game. By creating Bus01, I have managed to have it closed unless the player has a ticket. the first Bus, was a subobject of Bus station, and that's why the ticket wouldn't work. The ticket was given the role of a key, which the player can use to unlock a room, but because Bus was an object, it couldn't be unlocked. 

Coming from a no-programming background, I found Quest very interesting, even with the little glitches I have encountered along the way.

On the other hand, writing the narrative itself, was something I have enjoyed very much. Giving life to the characters I have drawn, and putting them in various situations, following their life as such, was a lot of fun.

Miss Pear's adventures. Chapter One - Fruit Town -one possible thread of the story

Miss Pear’s adventures. Chapter one – Fruit Town

The Central Library of Gloomy Seaside Town is a quiet place, where everyone goes quite often, as there isn't much else to do, except in the summer season, when the town is full of tourists. But now, as it is the end of August, Miss Pear, the receptionist of the library, is standing by the Reception desk, sorting out the books being brought back after the holidays. She has always enjoyed her job, but after a busy period, she always felt like she needed a break, like she wanted to go somewhere and experience an adventure of her own. She’s seen too many happy people living their dream for two-three weeks, that now, Miss Pear has decided there and then, that she wanted to escape.
A grumpy customer not admitting that he didn't return some books, has demoralised her even more. Now she was in the middle of an argument with him and needed to get away. She tells him that she needs to check in the register about those books and excuses herself while she steps into the Office.

First things first, though, she wanted to see when her holidays were booked for. The Office is a very daunting and grim place, hardly any light gets through. Every time she was going in, she felt  the need to run out, but today she was making an effort to find the calendar with the holidays and that register. The light switch was quite difficult to find in that darkness, but as she has switched it on, she realised why she wasn't using the office to relax in her lunch breaks, even though she was allowed to: it was a complete mess, and no matter how often she has tidied it up, it was always getting back to this indescribable state… Sad how it didn't bother some people to live in such a mess: the desk was a complete chaos, lots of papers thrown around, with no order or logic whatsoever, there was a plant on the windowsill, if you could really call it a plant any more  that is, as it looked more like a set of twigs… But somehow, she did find that calendar and realised that her holiday wasn't really booked until much later in the year. What was she thinking when she has booked her holiday for October??? What was she going to do in October??? A!!!! Now she remembered, her friend has asked her to swap and as she had nothing better lined up, she has accepted, but now she regretted it…immensely…

“Well, let’s see what I can do about this.” She thought to herself as she left the office and went straight to the Canteen. She was going to ask Amy Apricot if she could swap holidays as she was supposed to have some time off in the next few days.

“Aww”…Amy has left a plate of fish and chips for Miss Pear on the table… “No, I couldn't ask her to swap, she has got family coming tomorrow, I couldn't do this to her…I couldn't really ask anyone to swap their planned holiday with me, it’s too short notice for anyone. I really want to leave…now…”

She went back to her desk, finished what she was doing told the grumpy customer that he is allowed to take the new books out, but that someone else will look into the old ones,and started writing a letter…a resignation letter. She has decided it’s time for her to take life in her hands and go and chase her dreams, and at this point in time, her dream was to have an adventure and follow the wind, wherever it would take her…

M.P. (Miss Pear) dropped the letter in the Office and went home to pack a few things and started walking… Should she go to the train or bus station? There was no airport in Gloomy Seaside Town, and she didn't really want to fly anyway, she wanted to see places, so either bus or train would do for her. She was ready to explore.

Her steps took her to the Bus Station. First bus was in 10 minutes and would go all the way to Fruit Town. That was quite a way away from Gloomy Seaside Town, but it would cross most of the country and she really wanted to see places. If she wanted she could hop off the bus, if any place along the way would stir interest. So she decided to hop on, but in order to do that, she needed a ticket. At the ticket office window, a sour face was saying something she couldn't really understand, it was much too loud, with everyone getting on the bus and trying to organise their luggage in the luggage compartment. When she got a bit closer, she realised she was being advised to rush if she wanted to get on that bus, as there were only a few minutes left till departure. She quickly bought a ticket and got on board. She didn't need to use the luggage compartment, as she only had a small bag with overnight stuff. She was going to buy things along the way, depending on where she will settle: somewhere by the sea ( a more lively seaside town), or somewhere in a big town. Fruit Town was a place that she always wanted to visit. From the books, it looked like a very old, quiet, but quirky little town, but full of places to visit and interesting arty things to do. She was thinking for quite some time that she would love to take up painting, but with her job and helping out her neighbours, her life was pretty busy in Gloomy Seaside Town , so maybe, this was the time to see if that would make her feel more accomplished.

As she got on the bus and found a great sit by the window, she was being “attacked” by two toddlers – the Cherry Twins. They were very cute, almost angelic in their looks, but she could see trouble was in the waiting… She tried not to interact too much, as the reason for this trip was to relax and enjoy the scenery, but she couldn't ignore them, as they were literally climbing onto her… Where were their parents???? She told them off in a nice manner, and gave them a sweet each, to keep them quiet, but it didn't last long. So, as she went back to reading her book, she was being jumped on again… What should she do? Should she say something to their parents? Should she ignore them to see if they would stop?

She did try the peaceful way, she carried on reading her book for a while until it was not possible any more  She got up, to look for their parents. They were both asleep. Was this normal? Would you just go to sleep and leave your young children to just roam and annoy passengers? She went to the front to talk to the bus driver, seeing that the Cherry Twins have only picked her and no one else to annoy. But the bus driver didn't really want to know too much, as long as he had peace and quiet, he was happy.

“What is all this about???? She is on a holiday. She has even given up her job to live a dream. This WAS NOT her dream!!!”. She has decided to take matter in her own hands. She told the twins off and got them both by their hands and sat themdown in their seats next to their parents, but that was not their idea of fun, so they have decided to throw a tantrum, as that always worked for them. And it seemed that, that was what worked for their parents, as they both woke up instantly. How funny… But, not so funny when they started accusing Miss Pear of upsetting their children. In vain she has tried to explain that the kids needed to be looked after, as she wanted to read her book and not be jumped on by two toddlers. The parents started abusing her as well now.

“What was all this about???? Is this a farce? Is someone playing a trick on me???” she thought out loud. But instead of someone familiar jumping from behind a seat, the Cherry twins’ parents were carrying on with their verbal abuse, raising their voices now, as they were clearly getting more and more annoyed with the fact that they were woken up from their nap.

M.P. decided that she needed to take the situation in her own two hands as, by the looks of it, no one else was getting involved. Should she start an argument with these inconsiderate and rude people, and put them in their place? Is it worth it? Or should she just get off the bus and get on with her adventure. This might just be a sign, this whole situation might just tell her it is time to get off the bus. There might be something interesting waiting for her in the next town.

“Yes, that’s what I will do! I am wasting no more time!” She went in front and asked the bus driver to drop her off at the next stop.

Having misunderstood her, he stopped the bus at the edge of town, and there was no public transport she could take, but she only realised that once the bus was gone. Oh dear, what a nightmare. Did she do the right thing? Was she really made for adventures?

The only thing she could do, was to hitch-hike  but luckily, there came a car that stopped straight away and picked her up. Madame Ananas (the driver), told her she was heading to Fruit Town.

“What a coincidence! Yes, I’ll get to Fruit Town, after all, and have a great ride at the same time. Oh, didn't I mention, Madame Ananas introduced herself as being a ballet teacher, who has been visiting relatives in Gloomy Seaside Town, and was on her way back home, but didn't really enjoy driving all that way on her own. So she was really happy to have a passenger to talk to. She was driving a really nice car, comfy seats, lovely relaxing music was coming out of her stereo, so what more could anyone ask for?”

So M.P. started telling her about the mini 'adventure' she had on the bus and why she had to abandon her travels and was forced, in a way, to hitch-hike.

“Oh no, not the Cherry Twins!!!” was what came out of Madame Ananas’ mouth… “ funny how small the world is, isn't?  They were living next door to my relatives, during my stay in Gloomy Seaside Town. They were there on holiday, but were really cheeky.”

Then they started talking about each other’s lives, deciding to both leave their respective Cherry Twins episodes behind them.

Madame Ananas was a retired ballet teacher, a widower, part of the old French aristocracy, and she had a son, Lazy Ban (lazy by name, lazy by nature, as Miss Pear will soon find out for herself). She was telling her companion how she was trying really hard to get her son interested in the family affairs, as she was really ready to retire and leave everything for him to run. They had a few art galleries in Fruit Town. The only thing Lazy Ban was interested in, was painting, and she had to admit, he was really good at it, but she would have liked him to have a bit of business sense and run the art galleries as well.

“How lovely”, thought Miss Pear, “I came on this adventure to learn how to paint, and I'm having a ride with the owner of a few art galleries in Fruit Town...

Mapping out my game - Fruit Town

Fruit Town

This year, I have decided to connect and weave all my modules into each other. I find it much easier to work if I have got a large project consisting of various different tasks. So, for my very first module, Drawing for games, we had to come up with an idea - character, environment or object, and take it from initial concept, through refined sketches, to a Final piece. After quite a lot of different attempts  and going down various avenues, I have settled upon a few characters that will eventually, create and be part of, a mini game, animation and/or cartoon. 

As a whole, I have named my project Fruit Town, as all my characters are different types of fruit.

So, the starting point for this project, creating an interactive text based adventure, was this piece:

So, my main character will be Lady Pear ( a pear), Mr Kiwipedia ( kiwi fruit) will be the narrator, the Cherry Twins will take the part pf mischievous children, driving the story forward, with their cheeky behavior, while the Wise App (apple) will be overlooking them all. There are some other characters, not present in this painting, but I do have some sketches to show them up. They are Lazy Ban (banana), Madame Ananas (pineaple) and StrawMary ( strawberry).

 

Act 1

Exposition : Gloomy Seaside Town - Central library reception desk- Miss Pear is sorting out through the books brought back and laying in complete chaos. She's a happy go lucky person, but today seems to be the day when she needs adventure in her life. She decides to take off and go away for a while. She doesn't have any family, close enough to inform, so during her lunch break, she gets on the first bus and awaits to see what the destination will be. ...

Meanwhile, in Fruit Town, few hundred miles away from Gloomy Seaside Town, Lazy Ban is doing what he does best - lazing around by the pool, listening to the music in his headphones, not talking to anyone, not helping anyone around the house, just being moody. Madame Ananas, Lazy Ban's Mum, is part of the old French aristocracy, a widower, retired ballet teacher, trying to get her son interested in the life her family leads. 

Mr Kiwipedia is the narrator, a character present everywhere the story is taking place. He does not interact with the characters (he is sort of invisible to the other characters, in the sense that he is always out of focus), but he will always have an opinion on the events taking place.

The Cherry Twins are two very mischievous twins ( a boy and a girl), 7 year old, who basically drive the story with the constant obstacles they are setting.

Plot point 1

Miss Pear gets on the bus and waits to see where it will take her. She has taken the plunge and gone on an adventure, away from the day to day routine of the librarian job.

Obstacles

The Cherry Twins are on the bus and are being naughty, and getting everyone on the bus annoyed.

Story can move in two different directions from here: 

1. Miss Pear will join in the twins "fun" as she is on an adventure and tries to rebel, by doing everything against her normal convictions, or
2. Miss Pear intervenes and tells the twins off, reinstating the order on the bus            

I have used a mind mapping software in order to map my game, and I have found it very useful, as it has a lot of add on images to support the text inputed. It has helped me a lot with creating new avenues due to the visual aspect of the map. Below,  I have added an image of the whole map (fig3), but due to the size of it, the text is barely visible. However, I have cropped sections of it and zoomed in (fig1 and fig2), in order to give everyone an idea as to how I have moved on and developed my initial. idea. 

fig1

fig2

fig3

Next step, was to start creating the interactive narrative, and for this, I have decided to use Quest, a software that lets you create and share interactive fiction. After watching a few tutorials and reading up on how to use the software, I have started my own adventure in creating an adventure.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

Text based adventure games

Text based adventure games

"An adventure game is a video game in which the player assumes the role of protagonist in an interactive story driven by exploration and puzzle-solving instead of physical (e.g. reflexes) challenge.^[1] The genre's focus on story allows it to draw heavily from other narrative-based media such as literature and film, encompassing a wide variety of literary genres. Nearly all adventure games (text and graphic) are designed for a single player, since this emphasis on story and character makes multi-player design difficult.^[2]

In the Western world, the genre's popularity peaked during the late 1980s to mid-1990s when many considered it to be among the most technically advanced genres, but it is now sometimes considered to be a niche genre.^[3] In East Asia on the other hand, adventure games continue to be popular in the form of visual novels, which make up nearly 70% of PC games released in Japan.^[4]" 

                                                                                      (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adventure_game)


The text based adventure game is a sub genre of the adventure games, as well as graphic, visual and puzzle adventure games. A few examples of text based adventure games are:

The Hobbit: http://www.twinbee.org/hob/play.php?snap=hobbit

Hitchhikers’ Guide to the Galaxy: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/hitchhikers/game_nolan.shtml

Zork/ Adventure/ Jigsaw/ Galatea: http://www.web-adventures.org/

Ye Dungeonman 1: http://www.homestarrunner.com/dungeonman.html

Scott Adams’ Back Catalogue (inc. Adventureland, The Count, Pirate’s Cove, etc.): http://www.ifiction.org/games/?cat=44

Quest (Editor’s picks): http://textadventures.co.uk/

I have also found this website ( http://textadventures.co.uk ) with lots of examples of text based adventure games categorised depending on their themes. I found this really useful as these are rather short and easy to follow games, with very easy choices to take when it come to the plot lines, but very elaborate outcomes depending on which path you take.

First game I have played from here, was "It's election time in Pakistan: Go rich boy,Go!" ( http://textadventures.co.uk/games/view/44yzyx1xykcy0sv4ycz9cg/its-election-time-in-pakistan-go-rich-boy-go )

I found this very entertaining. I have played it a few times, each time choosing a different path, and thus being given different plot lines. This game is about a rich boy who decides to part part of the democratic process in Pakistan and go out and vote despite the imminent threat of bombings in the polling stations. He has multiple choices when it comes to who to choose to take with him: a girl he fancies, his best friend (an airhead), or his guard. With the girl he doesn't get very farm he earns some points for standing up to his beliefs, but gets beaten up in the end by her Dad and his guards, so doesn't get to actually vote.

By taking his best friend, he has to change his attitude, he needs to deceive him slightly, in order to actually get him out of the house and in order to get him to agree with his plans. So, by doing just that, he gets to vote, but on the way, they encounter all sorts of obstacles. First, they have to cast their vote in a polling station located in the worst area of the city, they have to drive for well over two hours, after which they need to walk through a very run down neighbourhood, they are being abused by the militia. But, they get to vote and get to return home. So, happy days for the main hero and his best friend, as well as me as I did get to finish the game.

Another game I have played, or...attempted to play, was Captain Jumbo http://textadventures.co.uk/games/view/t1ai61mt20wtrffownebyw/captain-jumbo.

However, unlike the previous one. I found this one really difficult. It was really slow advancing through the level, as I kept encountering lots and lots of obstacles. There isn't a walkthrough, or I couldn't find one anyway, and I found it pretty frustrating, as it looks really interesting and am very curious to find out what happens and just simply couldn't...

7 conflict types in narratives - Person vs Society

For this exercise, we were split in two groups and were given the task to research and talk about the narrative based on either the 7 conflicts or 7 plots.
My group was given the 7 conflicts, and between us, we each had to chose 1 conflict to research in detail. My conflict is Person vs Society.

This conflict refers to a situation " When the protagonist’s conflict extends to confronting institutions, traditions, or laws of his or her culture, he or she struggles to overcome them, either triumphing over a corrupt society (I draw a blank here), rejecting it (Fahrenheit 451), or succumbing to it (1984)."
(http://www.dailywritingtips.com/7-types-of-narrative-conflict/)

http://www.storyboardthat.com/articles/education/types-of-literary-conflict

http://www.storyboardthat.com/articles/education/types-of-literary-conflict

A pretty good example of this kind of conflict would be in The Hunchback of Notre Dame. We have actually 2 different characters fighting against society in this cartoon. The first one is Esmeralda, the gypsy girl,  fighting to change the society's take on gypsies, and, on a different level, she is also trying to change Quasimodo's attitude and preconceptions. He was isolated since birth, he was made to live alone in a tower, so his perception on life is not actually his own, his views are his "Master's" (Frolo). So, the second conflict, sees Esmeralda trying to change the society's views on Quasimodo, and through this, change their attitude towards the unusual, the different. We can actually say the Esmeralda is fighting against the society, in order to make them accept "the others" as part of the society as a whole. I know this is only a cartoon, but the layers of narrative are many and there are also many lessons to be learnt. Esmeralda represents the free spirit, unconventional mind teamed up with a strong character, giving her the power to fight and win the battle against the restrictive society.
On a different level, however, she is trying to convince Quasimodo, the product of this society, that he is just a normal human being, and that it IS OK for him to interact, to go out and be part of the society that has marginalised him for the simple fact that he was born different.

Esmeralda fighting the representative of the Society

Esmeralda  protecting Quasimodo - the "odd one out", the one the society is rejecting, marginalising

 Guy Fawkes - fighting against society. He is trying to burn down The House of Lords in an attempt to make his opinions heard. The reasons for this attempt is deeply religious. 
After Catholicism was pushed slightly aside,... 

..."The situation deteriorated further at the Hampton Court Conference of January 1604. Trying to accommodate as many views as possible, James I expressed hostility against the Catholics in order to satisfy the Puritans, whose demands he could not wholly satisfy. In February he publicly announced his 'utter detestation' of Catholicism; within days all priests and Jesuits had been expelled and recusancy fines reintroduced.

Although bitterly disappointed, most English Catholics prepared to swallow the imposition of the fines, and live their double lives as best they could. But this passive approach did not suit all.

Robert Catesby was a devout Catholic and familiar with the price of faith. His father had been imprisoned for harbouring a priest, and he himself had had to leave university without a degree, to avoid taking the Protestant Oath of Supremacy. Yet he possessed immense personal magnetism, crucial in recruiting and leading his small band of conspirators."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/civil_war_revolution/gunpowder_robinson_01.shtml

Guido Fawkes ( Guy Fawkes)

V for Vendetta

Another good example: Robin Hood stealing from the rich to give to the poor.  Is he right in doing that? He IS STEALING, does the fact that he is giving to the poor, make the act right?
This conflict, man vs society, is a very interesting subject to talk about, as is really depends which point of view you are telling the story from. Morality has an immense role in this conflict, as it depends a lot how much you are willing to forgive and bypass certain actions in order to accept the mindset of the hero.

While researching into man vs society conflict, I came across this great blog on the subject: http://www.paperwingspodcast.com/2012/05/man-vs-society/ 
The examples given in this article, are from movies, but I think they are just brilliant.

The devil wears Prada

The Help

Indiana Jones

Jerry McGuire

The American War of Independence (1775-1783)

Exercise: Structure the narrative in a film of choice, based on Syd Field's 3 act structure

Exercise: Structure the narrative in a film of choice, based on Syd Field's 3 act structure

For this exercise, we have been, again, split in groups of 3, and we have chosen to talk about Finding Nemo.

Act 1 

 The set up

 In Finding Nemo, the set up can be broken down in 3 acts as well, as Normality is being set as we are being introduced to Marlin and Coral, 2 clown fish, expecting a whole lot of babies. They are talking about normal things, like what to name their babies, as a barracuda comes and eats Coral as well as all but one eggs. At the same time, Marlin is being hurt and knocked unconscious, so this can easily be classed as a mini climax, or a mid point. But then, he realises that one egg is left, so life has purpose again, and he is determined to offer this one egg the best life he can. 

Another "normality" is being established as we are being introduced to the life Nemo and Marlin are living, as they get ready for Nemo's forst day of school

Characters

In a very short period of time we meet quite a few characters: apart from Nemo and Marlin, we also meet Mr Ray (Nemo's teacher), a few of Nemo's new school mates and also, we are beibng introduced to Dory who will play a key role in this whol adventure

Act 2

Inciting incident

The confrontation between Nemo and Marlin as the young fish ventures into the sea. Nemo feels like he needs to prove himself, while Marlin is trying with all his will to stop him from getting hurt.

Plot point 1

Marlin sets off to find his son, after he was picked up by a diver

Obstacles
Dory and Marlin encounter the sharks and then the angler fish as they are escaping the sharks.

Midpoint

Marlin realises that Dory can't actually help him due to her very short term memory.

At the same time, on the other side of the ocean, Nemo is trying to escape through the filter in the fish tank, in the Dentist's office.

( We encounter here, two stories happening side by side hence the situation where we have 2 midpoints)

Plot point 2

The turtles find Marlin and Dory and are pointing them in the right direction.

                                                             Marlin meets Crush

Act 3

Clinax 1

Marlin and Dory get to the dentist's surgery and see Nemo belly up in a bag - they think he is dead and give up the rescue

Climax 2

Nemo lying for dead at the bottom of the ocean after trying to save the fish caught in the net. 

Denoument

Nemo and Marlin go back to school. Normal life is being restored, however, there is a twist, normality is slightly different than at the beginning of the film. As Nemo gets ready to go with Mr Ray, Dory shows up with their shark friends. "Fish are friends, not food" is being proven to be true for now.

The Hero's journey - Joseph Campbell

The Hero's Journey

The most basic mental picture anyone can form when thinking of a hero's journey is shown in this image

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So, any narrative starts with a sense of normality, everyone, and especially the hero, leads a normal life, run by routine. From that, we start to build a story following some basic steps. These steps have been used in movies, theatre, opera, games, books, anything that involves narrative.

Here are these basic steps.

1. Departure - the hero's journey begins here, he will depart from the ordinary world
2. The call to adventure - 
3. Initial refusal of the call
4. Acceptance of the call
5. Supernatural Aid and/or talisman
6. Crossing the first threshold and entering into the unknown
7. Threshold guardians
8. Allies/helpers
9. Belly of the whale

There is quite a lot to explain about each one of these steps, in order to make it clear as to what their significance is, but I have found a brilliant, in depth description of each one of the stages a hero will have to follow during a story. It is known as Campbell's monomyth.

http://davidrjolly.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/monomyth.jpg